Speaker problems

Speaker problems meant my alarm didn't sound this morning and I was late to work. I'm playing with it now, and it seems that even at the highest volume, the external speaker is barely audible. What the heck is this? I'm very angry with my droid today and I want to make sure this never happens again!

I noticed my sound notifications today had gotten very quiet when I even had it to full volume. Powered down and back up and everything is well again. I used one phone once for an alarm clock and it was plenty loud when it went off.